“Attached To The Vine”
(John 15:1-8)
I. Introduction.
A. Jesus has, quite rightly, been called the “Master Teacher.”
One reason for this was His ability to take common events
and familiar circumstances or items and apply spiritual
meaning to them.
1. He often used the physical environment as
illustrations for spiritual truths.
2. He made His teaching relevant – as well as
understandable – by comparisons with everyday
living and with familiar things.
B. Often, Jesus used Himself as a basis for comparison.
For example:
1. He said He was the door to the sheepfold
(John 10), the way opened to security, protection,
and salvation. As sheep were physically secure in the
fold, protected by the guarding shepherd, so there is
spiritual security in Christ.
2. In other places in John’s gospel, Jesus speaks of
Himself in terms of comparison to other ordinary
items: water, bread and, in John 15, the “true vine.”
(Re-Read, John 15:1). On the evening before His death,
Jesus shares His thoughts, His feelings, and more
teaching with those closest of His disciples. Here, Jesus
focuses on the disciples’ connection with Him and,
through Him, to God.
C. The comparison would be understandable to these disciples.
Vineyards were a common sight in Palestine, but the vine
also had a spiritual connotation of its own.
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1. If you were to approach the massive doors leading into
the Temple at Jerusalem, you’d see carved on them, in
gold, vines. These were connected to the words of
prophet Jeremiah, in 2:21: “Yet I have planted you a
noble vine, a seed of the highest quality. How then have
you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an
alien vine?”
2. The Jews saw Israel as the “true vine,” the vine of God.
But, now, Jesus says “I am the true vine.” I am the true
Israel of God, the seed of Abraham through whom all
the prophecies are fulfilled.
3. His referring to God as the “vinedresser”
(“husbandman”) is also important. God will reject and
destroy the unproductive, worthless, vine and the
spiritual seed will be continued in the “true vine” –
Christ (Re-Read v. 5).
D. Let’s look at what Jesus says here, and draw some conclusions
as to its significance for us.
II. Lessons From The True Vine.
A. Very first lesson that emerges is that, without a proper
relationship with Christ, there can be no success, or salvation.
1. Brings us again to verse 5: “…without Me you can do
nothing.” Jesus is the source of help and strength. The
branch is, in fact, the vine, being part of it. When that
life-giving union is destroyed, when the branch is
severed from the vine, the branch dies.
2. To whom must we turn for the words that lead us to
eternal life? Not just anyone will do. Not just any
teaching will do. Jesus provides the exclusive message
which brings a person to salvation.
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3. Jesus’ uniqueness – and the uniqueness of His
message – are emphasized in His being the “true
vine.” All words that direct people toward God, and
salvation, must be compared with His words.
B. Number two, our connection with Christ must be
continuously maintained.
1. Verse 4: “Abide with Me,…” Remain with Me until
the end of life.
2. And in verse 6: “If anyone does not abide in Me, He is
cast out as a branch and is withered…”
a. Here, Jesus addresses a question still asked often
today: can a Christian so sin as to be eternally
lost once he or she is “in Christ?” Both the
principle and the example are here.
b. Judas Iscariot was a true apostle, but did not
“abide in Christ.” So, he was “cast out as a
branch.” (Unrepented of sin separates us from
Christ and the Father.)
3. Salvation hinges on two questions: “is a person
‘in Christ’” and, “does a person remain ‘in Christ?’”
a. Revelation 2:10: “…Be faithful until death, and
I will give you the crown of life.”
b. Revelation 14:13: “… ‘Blessed are the dead’…”
(who die in the Lord)
4. Our initial connection in our obedience to the gospel,
must be maintained. No “branch” can live without a
continuing connection with the source of life – the
“vine.”
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5. But, there’s another reason why the connection must be
maintained.
(Illust.) Suppose you go to see a couple who have a new
baby. Proud parents show off that child and ask
inevitable questions: “Isn’t he just a perfect baby?”
(“Isn’t he cute?”)
But, suppose you go back sometime later, many months
later, maybe even years later, and the mother shows you
her child – a baby identical in appearance, size, and
weight to baby you saw before. Things are no longer
way they ought to be – if no apparent growth has
occurred.
a. Our connection with Christ should produce
growth.
b. To be baptized and then only show a casual
interest in personal spiritual growth, or to the
church, is not being securely connected to the
vine.
C. So, point three: Disciples are expected to grow and produce
fruit.
1. Re-Read verse 2; and, verse 8.
2. Our spiritual productivity is a measure of our
spiritual growth – but such productivity is not for our
own glory, but for God’s.
3. Let’s be clear on one point: fruit bearing is not just
activity for the sake of appearance, and it’s not going
after results at the expense of truth.
a. The most lasting growth may be slow, but
steady. Not just any kind of fruit will do for
God.
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b. (Illust.) There’s a story about a gourd that grew
in just a few weeks, until it reached the very top
of a stately palm tree. The gourd said to the tree:
“How old are you?” The tree replied: “A
hundred years old.”
The gourd made light of this: “A hundred years
old? And only this tall? Why, I grew this much
in only a few weeks.”
Palm tree answered: “I know. Every summer of
my life, a gourd as proud and arrogant as you
has grown up and said the same thing, and has
been just as short-lived.”
4. God has the power to work His Will without us, but
He’s depending on us to do His Will. He will not force
fruit-bearing on us, either.
5. God depends upon us to do His work on earth. We
draw our strength from Him (verse 4: “…the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the
vine,…”).
D. In sum, our relationship to Christ is a matter of personal
responsibility.
1. The “branches” here, in John 15, are individuals,
not collections of people.
2. Think about this: the wood of the vine has a curious
characteristic – it’s good for nothing. It’s too soft to
use for any purpose.
a. In Jesus’ time, at certain points in year, it was
part of law that people bring offerings of wood
to the Temple for the altar fires for sacrifices.
It was also in law that the wood of vines was
not to be brought.
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b. The only thing to be done with wood pruned
out of a vine was to make a bonfire and destroy
it. Jesus knew this, His disciples knew this, and
He uses this understanding to draw His picture.
3. Jesus compares the wood of the vine to individual
disciples. Some are productive, fruit-bearing branches
of Himself; others are useless because they bear no
fruit. Who, specifically, was Jesus talking about?
a. First, the Jews. As branches of God’s vine,
many refused to accept Him; refused to listen
to Him. They were withered, dead, branches.
So, too, are disciples who profess obedience but
don’t practice it. Theirs are words without
deeds, all leaves but no fruit.
b. There are also disciples who receive God’s
message, obey it, then fall away – those who
don’t “stick.” Those who face difficulties,
or desire to do as they please, abandon Jesus.
c. The fruitless branch is on the way to
destruction.
d. The fruitful branch is in contact with Jesus and,
ultimately, with God. That was the nature of
Jesus’ own life. Again and again, He withdrew
to a quiet, solitary place to meet His Father.
As “branches”, we must maintain that same kind
of devotional life. It takes our effort and desire
to do this.4. Two things will result from that daily, personal,
constant contact with the vine.
a. We enrich our own life, and, in so doing, we can
be ever-more fruitful.
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b. And, we bring glory to God.
c. Both stated in verse 8.
III. Conclusion.
A. (Illust.) In California, giant redwood trees rise hundreds of
feet into the air. You have to wonder how the leaves at the
top get their nourishment. It’s not pushed up from the ground
and the roots. It’s drawn, from above.
B. We can’t “push” something onto someone that they would
resist or resent. We can only teach people to receive the
strength that comes from above. That’s what Jesus, the
“Master Teacher”, did.
C. There can be no lasting quality to life without the saving
connection with Christ. He asks us to join with Him, in
life, now and forever.